英国华威大学媒体学dissertation：论互联网与当今世界

互联网已经彻底完全改变了世界，体现在从人们如何生活到如何工作。父母和我们的前辈们也都因互联网进入其孩子的生活而受到了影响。我自己便处于互联网的一代，经历着在这现象中出现的不同挑战和机遇。

 

在他的《数字化的一代》书中，作者唐 泰普史考特用一种广泛、理智并且易懂的方式已经解决了围绕这一现象的问题。读过此书后，我了解了外面的世界的如何的，甚至意识到了互联网是如何影响我日常业务的互动与执行。作为这代的一份子，拥有属于自己的物品比如一部智能机，一台手提电脑或台式机，或者甚至一台掌上电脑是必不可少的，只是这仅举几例的物品需能够连接互联网。

 

我们这一代不像父辈一代那样不幸，他们没机会学习和经历今天现代数字世界。许多人似乎更乐意人们的日常生活从与他人的互动方式到其工作方式，几乎每一个动作的彻底改变。虽然我们上一辈人使用的是其他较慢的通信方式，诸如邮局邮件和那些为多数人准备的位于街角的电话亭。在现代社会，相比于邮寄信件，我们更多使用邮箱和及时聊天工具，我们现在所拥有的手机增加了互联网连接的聊天和收发信息功能，取代了以往的电话亭.

 

The internet has completely revolutionized the world from how people live to how they work. Parents and our older generation too have been affected by the coming of the internet into their children’s lives. I myself being of the internet generation have also undergone through the various challenges and opportunities presented by this phenomena.

 

In his book the Grown up Digital, author Don Tapscot has addressed the issues surrounding the phenomena in a broad and sensible way that is clear to understand. After having read the book I understand how without even realizing it how the internet has affected both how I interact and how I perform my everyday tasks. Being a member of this generation it has become necessary to have in your possession items such as a internet connected phone, a laptop or a desktop, or even a PDA just but to name a few of the items necessary for one to get connected to the internet.

 

Our generation unlike that of our parents who were not fortunate enough to have learnt or undergone through today’s digital world as many would like to refer to it as has revolutionized close to every action in the daily routine of every person from the way we interact with each other to the way we work. While our older generation used other slower means of communication such as post office mail and the telephone which was located at the street corner for the majority of people .we in today’s world use email and instant messaging services in comparison to the snail mail, and instead of that telephone booth we now own mobile phones which in addition to talking have text messaging as well as being internet connected.

 

Using the services we have today I am better placed to perform several activities at the same time. I can communicate with the people around me, as well as download and listen to music and in addition I will prepare a simple task such as make a meal all at the same time.

 

Tapscot in his extensive research explores the following themes which when I compare with myself I am convinced that truly the times have changed.

 

He presents that the net savvy generation is fiercely independent which is true. In my generation when I would like to find out some information I will not necessarily ask help from those people am in direct contact with, instead am going to go online and engage in the services of search engines such as Google to research and find out what it is that am looking for. (Tapscott, 2009)

 

Am also convinced that my generation as well as myself are generally more of ourselves while engaging in the use of the internet in addition to encouraging free expression and views which at times will also spill over in our internet free life (when interacting with each other.) What I mean is that I do not have to hide my emotions or attitudes towards something or even someone while am engaging in sites especially when interacting with persons in the social networks. Not being in physical contact is a great help for this to happen. When engaging in a discussion such as those that are politically motivated armed with the knowledge gained during the course of my looking for information on the internet I will share my thoughts in the person as I am more confident as I believe am in the know. However this anonymity does have a price which however most of us are aware of in that I will not share some personal information like my banking details or my physical address freely as there are people out there who are malicious and may use this information to my detriment.

 

The internet has also brought up a generation that is not racially motivated as we have been brought together and in a sense made or coerced to live in a sort of smaller global village. Meeting people of different cultural backgrounds but who have same interests such as those that I have, we have come closer achieving what can probably be termed as one of the greatest challenges that our forefathers had racism. Social networks and gaming zones just but to name are one of the areas where we get to interact with people from all over the world and we get to share information about ourselves and our backgrounds hence creating a better platform for understanding each other and being more tolerable towards each other. (Tapscott, 2009)

 

The internet has driven me in person to levels where I try to outdo my own parents in a way where I am proving to them just how much I know on various topics. I will present an idea to my father on how to run a business and convince him why it is appropriate to do so at this time and why. The internet pushes us to be more mature than we really are so as to prove to the older generation that we can be more mature than they themselves

 

The internet has also caused us to be more in the happening of things now and not tomorrow. We have become fast thinkers and we believe in things happening quickly as we view the globe as being an all round economy. I for example will want information regarding a particular item from someone to be delivered to me as fast as possible and will not be able to comprehend why the delay is happening. If it is an email I will want an immediate response as I believe you should have an internet connection somewhere around you if you do not necessarily have it on your phone.

 

Don Tapscot describes my generation as being multi processing people in that we can do several things at the same time, when we multi task through several activities at the same time such as listening to music, browsing and doing our assignments at the same time.

 

Looking at how the internet probably has changed our lives is a question that will generate a lot of replies. Many will however point out at how it has simply simplified life’s activities, from shopping online, to working from home as well as outsourcing of resources for businesses; the internet has therefore brought about many advantages. Nicholas Carr in an article on the Atlantic Monthly posed the question, “Is Google making us stupid?” bringing about a host of reviews. In my own personal opinion I believe the internet has had an influence on our intellectual capabilities and culturally too we have been affected. Our older generation that consists of our parents and grandparents went through the educational systems many of them without the internet but however most of our generation has had the chance to be exposed to the internet some as early as they learn to read and write.

 

Schools have made it compulsory to have some knowledge of computers and by extension too the internet. While the older generation studied the basic elements of education such as the alphabet using teaching aids such as charts, we have learnt some of these things using the services of the computers. While studying in my own experience I would be asked by my parents to pinpoint a country’s location on a map and this would baffle me but using the internet applications especially search engine Google I would simply have to type it in and I would have the country’s location in an instant simplifying it for me instead of spending too much time going through the map looking for it manually.

 

I believe just like Carr does that as generations change so do the way that we are able to grasp and understand information. Looking back at the works of philosophers of back in the day such as Socrates, you can notice a difference in the way his outlook is on different topics and as we come closer to our generations so does this outlook on the same topic. The older generation it is true to say will collect information and process and understand this information in depth, unlike in my generation where we are equipped with a lot of information on various topics but however have it in bits of what we just need for that particular moment. This has led to us being more resourceful and more opinionated than the older generation as we are a faster generation and have made it a point to try and be innovative changing how things work and trying to be more resourceful by saving on time and engaging in several different topics at the same time

 

Culturally too we have changed by being more open and receptive to people of different backgrounds and cultures. By being able to interact freely through the various networks available over the internet we have interacted with persons of different ethnicities and backgrounds and have come to understand and be more receptive of them.

 

Life before interactive social sites such as the now famous Facebook among others like Twitter I must say was dull. During the period before the coming of the social sites we would engage in role playing when interacting with each other and the most personal way that one could actually communicate with another I would have to say would be through email. The other available modes of communication which were available were through gaming zones where we would interact as we played games but using different names and avatars.

 

The internet was dull back then for me as I could not share much of what I wanted to do with the world. Consequently I was not so dependant on the internet and would actually prefer to do things my self at my own pace. I would log on to the internet at a specific period in a day just to check my emails and do a little bit of research if it was required and that would be it.

 

Today however its more exciting with Facebook and other social sites like Twitter available, activities such as shopping, searching for jobs, looking for information on various topics while at the same time your able to keep in touch with your friends. Life over the internet has become more exciting and adventurous.

 

I now no longer need to hide my identity as I will be able to interact with those who already know me as well as make new friends without ever having met them. This social network has become like a disease for me as I have to make a point of logging in more than once a day and spend some considerable amount of time on it. Most of the things going on I will learn through it, for example when major global events do happen someone will update on the event and even create a link where I get to click and find out more information on it. The social networks in addition to Facebook and Twitter where people link up as well as upload information create a thirst to learn more on various issues and hence the need to be reliable on this sites.

 

The internet truly has changed our lives for the better and it wouldn’t have happened as at a better time. We are becoming a global village and who knows it may actually through the current digital generation and the future generations bring about landmark events such as world peace.